Talk To Me

In this bonus episode, the NYPD trains its first class of hostage negotiators since the beginning of the pandemic. To prepare for dealing with people on the worst day of their lives, the class begins with detectives sharing stories of their own hardships

In the season finale of "Talk to Me," hijacker Luis Robinson leads police on a high-speed chase through Kennedy airport. Negotiators still have to try to reach a man they can't even catch.

Hours into the bloody standoff at JFK Airport, there is finally a breakthrough: hijacker Luis Robinson agrees to talk with police. But hopes for a peaceful resolution prove premature

The Hostage Negotiation Team believed that the passage of time always worked in their favor---that the threat of violence diminished as the hours passed. But the hostage standoff at JFK Airport would put that belief to the test

With two dead and one wounded before negotiations have even begun, the 4th of July hostage crisis at JFK airport appears to be headed toward a disastrous conclusion

On the morning of a hot Fourth of July in 1977, Frank Bolz and the team negotiate with a man with an axe, holding a two-year-old hostage. They're getting ready to go home when another job comes in: a bus has been hijacked, and hostages have already been shot.

As the hours pass by, bank robber Cat Olson begins to realize that he's not the star of a movie. But he still can't make up his mind about how his story will end.

Bank robber Cat Olson is thrilled by his newfound celebrity until he is confronted by a voice from his past

A bank robber has his fifteen minutes of fame when he's interviewed live on air by a DJ at his favorite radio station

Weeks after the classic hostage drama “Dog Day Afternoon” is released, it inspires a bank robbery in Greenwich Village

Frank Bolz is threatened with transfer from the Hostage Negotiation Team when a young drifter robs a bank in Greenwich Village, demanding the release of Patty Hearst.

Intense bonds can form between hostages, hostage takers, and negotiators. The most notorious example of this process occurred during a 1973 bank robbery in Sweden that inspired the term "Stockholm Syndrome."

When an ex-cop turned TV reporter is asked to negotiate at a bank robbery, he learns how quickly things can go wrong

When madman goes to a pizzeria asking for a box to hold his shotgun, the NYPD tracks him back to his apartment. In the shootout that follows, a cop is trapped inside, caught in the crossfire between the gunmen and his brother officers

When a man claiming to have a bomb takes over an office in the World Trade Center, the NYPD's Hostage Negotiation Team weighs the risks of using outsiders and go-betweens to negotiate.

As nights pass without progress in the hostage siege in South Jamaica, an angry crowd threatens to riot. Meanwhile, Frank Bolz has to negotiate with his own bosses, who don't believe that his psychological approach will work

In the wake of a racially-charged shooting by a police officer that rocked the city of New York, the HNT tries to save the life of a child held by a three-time killer with a .357 Magnum in South Jamaica, Queens

Though the Hostage Negotiation Team was created in anticipation of high-profile terrorist incidents, it proves its worth in handling domestic crimes with some very complicated family dynamics

The successful conclusion of the siege of John and Al's was a rare bright spot for the NYPD in early 1973, when crime was soaring and the department's reputation had been battered by scandals uncovered by the Knapp Commission. Later that spring, Frank Bolz created the Hostage Negotiation Team. We join the team for unprecedented access as Harvey Schlossberg describes the types of criminals who take hostages and how psychology can be used to peacefully resolve a crisis.

As hours pass at John and Al's without a breakthrough, intermediaries are brought in to help ease the tension, but one of them has a hidden agenda of his own. When the hostage takers announce that everyone inside will die before they surrender, one of the hostages devises an escape plan

The NYPD's pilot program for hostage negotiation undergoes its first trial in January 1973, when four men rob John and Al's sporting goods store in Brooklyn seeking revenge for a mass murder in Washington, DC. Though an early gun battle leaves three cops shot—and one dead—police hold their fire for almost two days as they negotiate with the robbers, who now possess an arsenal of weapons and ammunition.

When another officer doesn't want to run the new hostage program, detective lieutenant Frank Bolz is given the opportunity of a lifetime. Bolz and Schlossberg form a bond, and together they begin to introduce their radical new concept—that it's better to wait, that it's possible to talk—to the most action-oriented cops in the department: the SWAT team, which the NYPD called the Emergency Service Division. Within months, the new program is put to the test.

After Munich, it becomes clear to NYPD Chief Simon Eisdorfer that police can't just improvise their response to hostage crises as they occur. Enter Harvey Schlossberg, a patrolman with a PhD in clinical psychology who is assigned to come up with a plan. Schlossberg's revolutionary insight—that police don't have to react right away, or try and retake control—meets resistance in an organization that believes the only thing cops should say to criminals is, “Come out with your hands up!” But a training program begins weeks after the Israeli deaths at the Olympics.

In August 1972, a botched robbery at a Brooklyn bank turns into a hostage standoff—and media circus—that would inspire a classic movie starring Al Pacino. Real-life FBI Agent Jim Murphy tells the inside story of how he drove the robbers and the hostages to JFK Airport, where the often-comic drama reached its tragic conclusion.

The 1972 Olympics in West Germany turn from a global celebration to a nightmare as radical Palestinian group Black September takes 11 Israeli athletes hostage. With multiple governments involved, chaos ensues, and a series of tactical and communication failures lead to heartbreaking catastrophe as the world watches in horror

When inmates riot at Attica prison in September 1971, 47 hostages are seized in a standoff that lasts for days. With no guidelines in place for negotiations, over 30 intermediaries scramble to make a deal that neither side is willing to accept. After Governor Rockefeller decides that the time for talking is over, 39 people are killed and 89 wounded in the brutal retaking of the prison

Talk to Me tells the inside story of how the field of hostage negotiations was created. In the wake of major 1970's tragedies such as the Attica prison riot and the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, the NYPD realized there was an urgent need to develop a system for handling hostage incidents. With news archives and first-hand accounts from hostage team founders Frank Bolz and Harvey Schlossberg, we bring to life cases large and small to explore what worked—and what didn't. The world's first hostage negotiation team pioneered the use of psychology in saving lives and created a model that is still used around the world today. The series is written and narrated by Edward Conlon, a veteran South Bronx detective and New York Times bestselling author. An XG Productions Series.